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How to Break Into UX

The User Experience (UX) industry is growing incredibly fast. As technology companies realize that the overall experience of using their product can make or break their bottom-lines, they’re rapidly investing in this exciting new skillset. That’s why UX designers are in such high demand right now, and it can be a great career choice for people who want to break into technology but are more interested in research and analysis than development and visual design.

Here are a few things you can learn to keep yourself ahead of the competition and in a prime position for a job in this rapidly expanding field.

What exactly is UX?

User Experience, also sometimes known as user-centered design, is what makes the difference between an obnoxious, complicated product and one that’s intuitive, easy and enjoyable to use. Here are a few of the tools UX designers might use:

Empathy & Curiosity: These two attributes are critical to a UX professional’s success in the industry. During the research phase of the project, UX’ers need to be asking lots and lots of questions while being bale to step into their subject’s shoes and understand their situation.

Personas: There can be no user-centered design without first knowing who your users are. That’s why UX designers create “personas,” fictional characters that represent a composite set of qualities across different users who were interviewed in the research phase of the project. Personas are based on research to accurately portray how real people might use the product.

Wireframes: These are the basic framework/layout for a website or app. UX designers create wireframes so the organization of information is both accessible and intuitive. Wireframes are used to test the concept of the design and are often shared with key stakeholders and the visual design team for review.

User Testing: Observing as users interact with your site to determine what’s working, what’s not, and how you can continue to evolve and improve it.

Creating your UX Portfolio

Far more important than a fancy degree is your portfolio, your most powerful tool for landing that killer UX design job.

However, it can be difficult to find the right opportunities work to build this portfolio because real-life problems and case studies are needed to showcase your skills.

That’s why programs such as DESIGNATION give you real-life opportunities for you to practice your skills and build your “book” (industry slang for your portfolio).

The DESIGNATION immersive UX/UI bootcamp experience will also give you an amazing opportunity to learn and practice using visual design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch, not to mention prototyping and wireframing tools such as Axure, InVision App, Omnigraffle, and more.

What Skills do you need to Develop?

There are a broad range of skills that can be employed by UX designers including visual design, metrics and analytics, prototyping and even psychology. With this wide range of skills comes a wide range of roles and job titles you can strive for including UX Researcher, Interaction Designer (IxD), Information Architect, and UI/UX designer. These roles vary greatly, but are all part of the UX discipline.

UX touches on many skills and areas of technology and is needed in most industries as part of an online presence. It can be difficult to build your portfolio but it is still the best way to show what you can do for potential employers and clients and is, therefore, the best way to get noticed and hired.

Interested in learning more about the possibility of a UX design career? Email will@designation.io to discuss the program, your future, and the possibility of a new career as a UX designer.